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The answer I am afraid, is they both have their own versions of Tweetdeck

Mashable have called theirs - MashDeck

Techcrunch have called theirs - Techcrunch Tweetdeck - Hardly original perhaps it should be Techdeck.

The questions is what is the point of downloading either of them?

The only difference between the ‘normal Tweetdeck and these white labelled versions, seems to be some funky colours, and that it comes with a pre installed search column for Mashable or Techcrunch.

Adding search columns so that you dont miss either of what these 2 sites are commenting is useful perhaps, but something that is extemely easy to do.

So I see absolutely no value in having their versions. I do however have plenty of reasons to select Tweetdeck, as my application of choice, when it comes to managing your Twitter account.

So what do you think?? Please post any of your comments below.

A few weeks ago, I have to say that I was not a great fan of Gary Vanerchuck, I had heard about him, and as I looked at some of what he was up to, I thought that he as just another loud, brash, arrogant guy who just liked the sound of his own voice.

And then I watched 2 of his keynote speaches, and I have to say, that I really found them inspirational, particularly when Gary talked about ‘caring about your customer and scaling’….

Sam Walton founder of Wal-Mart “there is only one boss - the customer..

Twitter allows you to interact and really show that you care about your customers. Firstly, you can search through Twitter and other applications, on your name, your brand, your products, and actually see what people are saying about you, and then you have the ability to get involved, answer questions, give your side of the story. You have the ability to show your customers that you truly care about them.

Real people, talking about real stuff, right now and in real time

You can also carry out market research, ask them for feedback on your marketing, products, resolve issues, and perhaps for the very first time, actually allow a 2 way dialogue to occur. Rather than you just shouting your products to the masses, actually listening, observing, and then engaging.

People often say to me, that they dont have time to ‘do Twitter’, that they have more important things to do. Like Gary, I would suggest that the number 1 thing that you can be doing, is providing great customer support.

Twitter is not about selling, its about engaging and adding value. What better way than to really engage with your customers and show them how you are different from the competition, and that you really do care…

Oh and in answer to my own question, I care massively about my followers / customers. I am always looking to answer their issues, questions, I regularly try and engage with them, support them and help them.

Do you agree / disagree with my post. I would love to hear your views on this. Please feel free to post your comments below.

When I first started on Twitter, I used to auto follow everyone that followed me. It seemed logcial and polite to simply follow back people that had decided to follow you.  However over the last few months, I have changed my mind, and have not been auto following people for some time. Here are my reasons….

Following people back for no other reason than they followed you, is really rather silly. I want people to follow me, because they find my posts useful, informative, educational, engaging, and something that they dont want to miss out on. I dont see why, If someone likes that, that I should simply follow them back. All they or anyone needs to do is message me and I will answer them and start a conversation, and then follow them back, if I like what they are up to.

I have found myself on way too many spammers list of followers, which gets you more spammers and so on, as you keep following them all back and so the cycle continues.

Although I use Tweetdeck to filter and group people, so that I dont miss out on people that I am really interested in, It has now got to a point, where my stream of tweets, is 70% selling, porn stars, get rich quick merchants, people who clearly do not have a clue as to how to use Twitter. So I am culling thousands from my list.. So that I get to see more of the stuff I want to..

I liken Twitter to being at a party. The first thing you may do at a party, is go over to people and say Hi.. That is the start of a conversation, and that is where the relationship may begin. Once talking to each other, then you both may decide to develop a stronger relationship over time.

So people message me and say Hi.. and lets get a chat going. However, It is worth noting, that I am very unlikely to follow anyone that does not have a suitable photo or logo, a good bio, their website details, and a range of updates that are not all about selling, buying, getting rich quick, body enhancements, and how to get 10,000 new followers by doing nothing.

What are your thoughts on auto following people back - I would love to hear them..

I am not sure why, but people are always looking for short cuts, ways to do things without the hard work, or effort and energy that is essentially required to make things a success.

Twitter is all about personal Engagement

So people have been adding loads and loads of RSS feeds into their Twitter stream to make it look as though they are sending out loads of updates, are really commited to their followers, and providing great articles or news that they have found - Wrong

The key to being succesful on Twitter is engaging with your followers, not simply becoming an RSS aggregation service. If I want to get the BBC sports updates, I can get those feeds delivered straight into my Google reader, I dont need you to do that for me….

If you regularly subscribe to a blog, then thats great, you dont need to stream every single one of their blog updates..

Remember it is your Brand that you are damaging by acting like this. If you have your own blog, as I do, then why do you need to auto the RSS feed. Simply write the blog, and then post a suitable headline and link on Twitter.

If you find useful information, then of course share it, but firstly make sure that you check out the link and the content, are they ok… Then read the article, is it something that you would be proud of writing, and then before posting the update, add a personal validation.. this will add credibility to your Brand…

A giveaway

When you next look at someone’s updates, you will notice that you can see where they were posted from.. If you notice that they all start off the same ie ‘liked this’… or similar, or are all from twitterfeed, then that is usually a way to see that they are fed in via RSS ……

I am not knocking RSS feeds in general, as I use for for other uses. But in my view they should not be used with Twitter. What do you think?? Do you agree or disagree, I would love to hear from you..

When you first start with Twitter, it is imperative, that you get a 3rd party application to help you to manage your account. The Twitter website is very basic, and does not allow you to do much. To really get the most from Twitter, in my view you should use Tweetdeck.

Tweetdeck was invented by Iain Dodsworth. He at the time was on Twitter, and felt that he was missing tweets, so wanted to find something that was available so that he no longer missed information that he wanted to receive.

He could not find anything that he liked, so he made his own.. Now Tweetdeck is one of the most downloaded appications to manage twitter that is available.

The older versions of Tweetdeck, had some issues, memory sap from your computer, adding more people to a groups when you had thousands of followers caused everything to crash, and probably to single biggest issue, was that you could not manage multiple Twitter accounts.

Enter Version 0.26.2

This really is the rolls royce of Twitter management. It has it all. You can send messages, have as many search columns and groups as you want, can with a single click, add pictures via twitpic, add video via 12 seconds.tv, manage multiple accounts, can follow, unfollow, block, block and report spam, shortern your URL links, translate your tweets into different languages.

It also allows for instant auto update of your facebook account, reference the tweet, email the tweet, and now you can even syncronise your layout and information, so that it is fully compatible with the iPhone application just launched - Tweetdeck for the iPhone.

So I know there are other applications out there.. Seesmic desktop, Nambu etc… Personally I dont like Seesmic having used it. This is about my personal taste, and I just found it more confusing and poorly laid out for me. As for Nambu, that is only for Mac’s and I dont have one…

So lets hear your views.. If you think Seesmic is better, then lets hear it, if you think Nambu is better, then lets hear you…. If you have found something new that is better than all of these, then lets hear it in the comments section.

I’m very excited to be announcing a brand new study looking closely at how businesses use Twitter, and what results they get. The study is being conducted by yourBusinessChannel in conjunction with my business. And I’m asking for six minutes of your time, to take part!

Twitter is a fabulous tool, and we want to measure how businesses are approaching Twitter, quantify the benefits businesses are getting from it, whilst at the same time seeing where there is room for improvement. We’ll be sharing the results of the study with you in the future.

And yes, there’s an eye-watering prize draw. Here’s what is up for grabs. Each of these prizes will be drawn separately, so you have plenty of chances to win.

• Two prizes of three hours Twitter Mentor time with me (valued at £225) drawn once we reach 500 respondents
• Two separate prizes of a Million Dollar Challenge (business development/ growth) blueprint of your choice – from yourBusinessChannel (valued at a minimum of US$2,500 each) once we reach 750 respondents to the survey
• Your own professionally produced 60 second advert for your business and a YouTube blueprint to ensure that you get some results with it – from yourBusinessChannel (valued at a minimum of US$7,500) drawn once we reach 1,500 respondents

Prize draws are totally random (using a number generator) and there are some reasonable restrictions as to how/when you redeem these prizes.

But you have to be in (the study) to win (the prizes).  So please take part in the study! Here’s the link to the study.

Please also RT this – the more people we have taking part, the more we’ll be able to share with you, and the faster we get to those prizes!

After you have joined Twitter, and posted a few updates, you should check to make sure that other people can find you on Twitter.

There are 2 key places where you must show up.

Search.twitter.com

Go to http://search.twitter.com and enter from:yourusername to see if updates from you show up

People Search on Twitter

Go to http://twitter.com/search/users and enter your user name to see if you show up in people search

I know from personal experience, that you may not be showing up on 1 or both of these. In which case, you will need to contact Crystal who is on the Twitter Support Team. Please do not message me, as there is nothing that I can do for you.

Here is what you should do:-

If you show up in one but not the other, please leave your user name and the link to the search results you DO appear in, like so:

@crystal doesn’t show up in Find People, shows up in Search: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=from%3Acrystal

@crystal doesn’t show up in Search, shows up in Find People: http://twitter.com/search/users?q=crystal&category=people&s…

Simply replace the url link with your own personal twitter user name that you searched on. So for me, it would be….

@crystal doesn’t show up in Find People, shows up in Search: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=from%3Amarkshaw

You must first post a few updates to your account in order to appear on http://search.twitter.com.  If you haven’t posted any tweets, you will not appear on Twitter Search.

It is critical that you appear in both of these searches. If people cannot find you by user name, then effectively you are invisble to Twitter. This will mean that none of your posts will be searchable either.

You will therefore be missing out on an awful lot of people that may want to comment on your posts, or follow you.